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Welcome to my blog! I love beading and this blog is an attempt to share a few of my beady tries and things, thoughts and thrills and inform you about what's new (patterns, jewelry, etc..) I got hooked by the wonderful art of beading in 2004 and never stopped since then. I live in Switzerland, in a small town between Geneva and Lausanne.

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Sunday, December 23, 2018

I have been struggling a real lot with my health. The Summer was too
warm and sunny and if you know me, you know how hard that is for me.

Both
my desire and ability to write tutorials was
extremely low after the Cellini peyote shapes were finally all done. I
am grateful to those who bought a pattern: Thank you very much for your
support! But I hope
to sell more of my Cellini peyote shapes, for I haven't done anything
else for sale the past 6 months, except Frosty. Instead, I did a lot for
free:

'Frosty' - snowman made of one single Bola Canastas

I founded a wonderful new Facebook group, Cellini
Peyote Freaks, where you can learn a lot about the stitch and its
applications. Color challenges with prizes are organized.
I wrote
and drew instructions for various Cellini peyote techniques, including
the Bolas Canastas. I consider it as a technique people can take
further, like I did with Frosty, this little snowman. He is one Bola
Canastas. You will find the tutorial only in my IndieMade shop.

I
was very happy with the two workshops I organized in collaboration with
my ergotherapist and am very much looking forward to founding a beading group in my hometown next year.

I was less happy with some painful
misunderstandings. And with people who didn't understand my
genuine concern, who didn't see that I cared for them. People who
understood things I wrote wrong and created more darkness in my life. One of them not only spread hate, tore my reputation to pieces, but thinks that everything is all fine now! Well, some harm cannot be undone. There is no UNDO in real life.

Fortunately, I saw this video about Sunny Jacobs,
reminding me to shine my little light of mine. It helped me more than
telling myself that Karma would bite eventually. And my many other, real friends on FB were precious allies. You know who you are! 💗💗💗 I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

The birds, the fish, the dragonfly, the pangolin, the big and the small
cats, the apes. the trees, the moon, the sun, the stars, the entire
Universe. Your life. Your body. Your soul. Everyone's life, body, soul.

Love is sacred.

The love in your heart is sacred. Even the sorrow in your heart is, for
sorrow is linked to love that is not acknowledged, may it be because of
absence or departure...

Time is sacred.

Your time. Everyone's time. Because life is time.
Your feelings. For feelings come from love or the lack of it.

And all this echoes with that light that you have inside of you, that
light that has no name, that light that shines or sometimes dims...

The time you are not gazing at the moon, not holding a kid's hand, not
laughing with friends, not making love - maybe because you can't, but
still need to put all that love into something to keep that light shine
on, is sacred. Maybe just to say to whomever will see it that you
exist, with all this love or light inside of you that you don't know
what to do with... To say that you are life, still alive, also there,
also a part of it all. To be acknowledged.

And so the things in which you put all that time, all that love, a
little bit of your soul, making it meaningful things, are sacred. By
extension.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

I discovered freeform peyote and bead embroidery nearly at the same time. I was completely fascinated by Tina Koyama's and Lillian Todaro's beautiful beadwork.

I
have never learned it from a teacher, or book and was a bit lost, but
managed to make 2 necklaces.with bead embroidery and freeform straps.
Both are dating back to 2006. One is called Atoll, inspired by the
beautiful photography "Eye of the Maldives" by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, and the other is called BaBe ('Baah-Bay') - formed by 3 rivers,
in Vietnam. Babe means 3 lakes, but it forms only one nowadays, due to
all the sediments that have filled the bottom of these 3.

'Atoll'

'Babe'

Although
I love the result very much, they are far from perfect, and I wanted to
learn more beadweaving techniques before tackling this type of beadwork
again. I got hooked on Cellini peyote, and geometric beading, but I
knew that I would come back to freeform one day.

I
made progress and created many designs. One day, I dreamt of another,
entirely freeform beadwoven necklace, called Liquid Earth. In that dream
I offered it to sha-woman Keisha Crowther, aka Little Grandmother
and founder of the Tribe of Many Colors. Keisha is a protector of
Mother Earth and healer. I respect her work tremendously, and so I made it, and sent it to her.

'Liquid Earth'

Last
Summer, I decided to offer a workshop to other persons who are also
struggling with health issues, in collaboration with our common
ergotherapist.

I
decided to teach them peyote, and a freeform ring, and see what would
happen. To prepare myself for this class, get my hands back at freeform
peyote and have an example to show to them of what can be made with the
technique I taught them, I made this 'River' bracelet and ring.

'River'

'River' - upside down

River has a double glass button clasp.

'River' - ring

I was pretty happy with the result. And my students were happy with
theirs. And now I am in search of a place where to continue the
adventure of beading all together. My ergotherapist herself is hooked
too, and helping me. She will arrange for another place to visit in
February, which is not soon enough, but alas, at least there is hope! And it is so close to my home that I should be able to go there by foot. Please, cross your fingers for me!

Now, after completing this piece, I decided to go for a special freeform peyote cuff, inspired by the art of Kitsugi,
which is the art of repairing cracks in broken pottery by adding gold
to focus the attention on the breach, and the story behind it. To make
an item that was already something dear to our heart a piece of art,
with more significance.

I have been wanting to create a cuff like this since a long time. With beautiful materials.

My goal was to make an allegory of a walk of life, with its moments of darkness and light...

with stellar people met, and key moments, be they good or bad, and light passing through all the cracks.

I let my needle and beads take some initiatives and ...

it
ended up becoming the Universe... Initially, moon and sun were not
meant to be there (and finding the sun button was quite challenging),
but the piece simply called for both to be there.

Also, the moon, reversible, is black on the other side, which allows me to wear it with its bright or dark side to the front.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Perhaps you remember my article "Bead Organized" about storage and organizers for beads, trays, tools and boxes with cabs and findings?
Did you notice that something very important was missing? Yes! Finished Jewelry Storage. Let's call it FJS.

Nice "psyche"

It was missing because I hadn't found the right solution for me. I had boxes full of beadwork on my shelves. There were bags with things I had completely forgotten about... and that was simply not OK.

When you love beading, chances are that you have a growing pile of beautiful things. And even if you sell and/or offer what you make to others, there are certainly plenty of things you want to keep. Maybe you have a wonderful FJS. If so, I would love to receive photos of it to add to this article. I know, however, that some have their beadwork piled up in boxes in which it ends up entangled. I have many pieces in boxes too, but to avoid the entangling part, I put everything in separate plastic bags. It is particularly useful for jewelry sets: it all remains together and nothing gets lost.

In an ideal world, I would showcase my most special pieces on shelves behind glass, and have a vanity with lots of storage space, but as for many, my world is not perfect. My apartment is small and some places tend to be invaded by what I wear most regularly, or by recently finished beadwork that I don't want to put in a box immediately... Thinking about it - I made many new pieces the past year:

I saw several lovely "Psyche" out there, as the French call them, but although I quite like them, I find that they take too much space on the ground and the price was a little high. My big pieces would also not fit in there. The only place where the storage could be added was a spot between my bedside and the window. I have been searching for a satisfying solution during months, without success.

Now this article might seem to be about what you could do, but it is actually more about something to avoid, and that is buying plastic hooks like the ones in the photo left. 3 sizes, perfect for necklaces, rings, objects like brooches, and for earrings. Super cheap, they come in multi-packs. After some hesitation, I bought a shallow Billy shelf, in which I placed these practical hooks with double-sided tape and thought that I had found the best possible FJS I could dream of. I even made lots of photos of how I arranged everything... but... as said, the world is not ideal and my plan didn't work as I hoped. The tape and the lacquer, or whatever it is, on the Billy, didn't really like one another. During the night following my installation, all the crochets came off. Needless to say that we didn't sleep super well - the hubby freaked out when the first things fell... in the end there was so much beadwork on the bottom shelf, that the last pieces barely made a sound when falling. Only the earrings, light weight, remained in place.

Yes, beads are heavy and just like bead storage, beadwork storage has to be sturdy too! I thought about attaching it all with screws... but preferred buying peg boards with assorted hooks which I can move freely, tiny shelves and elastic cord which offer the perfect support for earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Unfortunately, this resulted in costing a bit more than foreseen. What I use less is in sturdy boxes, with stickers mentioning what is in there, so now I know where my CGB beadwork is, or tutorial beadwork, or contest beadwork, There is a box for "specials", etc. So here is my FJS. It takes only 40x28cm on the ground but is 2 meters high and holds everything I want.

The bracelets are on a support that is normally meant for house-hold paper.
The tiny shelves are metal, and so magnets stay very well on them.

I cannot say that this is my dream FJS - the back of a Billy shelf is not so sturdy... but so far it stays put and is very practical. Now if you wish to create this shallow storage with peg boards (called Skadis), unless you are really handy yourself... you might need an ingredient that might be hard to find: a handy hubby. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank my dear one for cutting the peg board and fixing it and also for the many other things he does. Love him b

My next buy might be a mirror that can open and close thanks to hinges at the back. They mention that one can add small objects at the back of the mirror where the crochets for screws are not in use. What I would do is hang my favorite pendants and earrings against the wall and close the mirror to hide it all! Hop! On my wish list for x-mas!

Now if I could find more hands to help me rip out old stuff to ⥀... but that is another story.

I hope that this inspires you. Thank you for reading me! Maybe you also will like to bead with me?

Use coupon code CATHELIER to get 25% off of all patterns - valid only on my website until 30.11.2018 (not on Etsy).

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Except for the Fake website warning (annoying but necessary, and proof that interaction is vital), it's been quite a while since I wrote my last article, and I have lots of things to tell, and they are all happy things! (Note for those who might wonder: I leave the mean stuff out: you and I don't need negativity in our lives, and I refuse to waste my super precious time writing more than one sentence, and that is this one, about people I don't want to see, hear or deal with anymore).

If you follow the links above, you will learn more about each piece,
the making of and/or the inspiration behind each piece.

But there is more to all the above pieces than winning a medal: they are all representative of my 3 Facebook groups - 3 groups where I share what I love most about beading: beading itself, 3D peyote stitch with or without Cellini, lots of colors, a lot of interaction, mutual support and encouragement. "Bringing beadworkers together", which is the motto of the Beadworkers Guild, of which I am a proud member.

I still have tons of ideas for the petals. I wish that I had more hands!

Octavio was made using my latest 3D Cellini peyote tulip design and has Cellini herringbone arms, and you can learn Cellini peyote and many of its applications in the "Cellini Peyote Freaks" group, including Bolas Canastas. It is a great design to play with and take further.

Some of my bolas. Somebody on FB said "Barbapapa".
Barbapapa Bolas would have been a super name too!

Katerina Bacikova from the Czech Republic wrote instructions in Czech for the readers of the magazine Koralki how to create her Bolas Canastas necklace. Can you spot it?

You can still participate in this year long bead along! Just ask to join and bead one component each month in the monthly color (you can catch up the 3 past months progressively) and at the end of the year, we all assemble our components to make a fabulous rainbow!

My IBW year long bead along Bolas Canastas.

In the Cellini Peyote Freaks group, you can participate in the COLOR CHALLENGES. There will be 3 challenges, and the first, which has already started, will end on the 31st of December. A draw will designate 2 winners among those who challenge themselves to participate in these challenges and THIS is what the lucky ones will win:

5 Tidy Rings (only 3 shown)

A wonderful pack of beads and the amazing book "Story of Czech Seed beads"

The book included in the prize lot offered by the wonderful folks of Preciosa Ornela is a very special and beautiful book. I made a short video to present it to you:

Now something very important and new for me, that took quite a bit of my time to organize, but how worthy it was! I gave my first introduction to beading workshop to a group of ladies who had never ever done it before. It was in the framework of the art-therapy class of my ergotherapist - we had two 2.5 hour sessions. The aim was to see if the participants would like this activity, and at the same time to see if I could teach to completely newbies, and if the lack of light in the room would be a problem for the students - it was not as long as they had their lamps and I wasn't exposed to said lamps. The ladies all loved it, I loved it, and the ergotherapist loved it. Even she wants to bead on! I have no photo of this event - because a therapist cannot disclose the identity of the patients. But it was lovely. I am very proud. We all had a very good time, all wish to continue beading, and we can't wait to meet again!

Now I need to find a place where we can all meet on a regular, not therapy-related basis and where the lights won't bother me. I welcome your wishes of good luck, fingers crossed and good vibes, for it is not easy to find a place in my region, and if you can, please visit my shop and buy a few patterns to support me.

In French, a workshop is called an "Atelier", and so I will call it my "Cathelier".

Use coupon code CATHELIER to get 25% off of all patterns - valid only on my website until 30.11.2018 (not on Etsy).

This is a very important warning. It appears that many, many Etsy vendors, be it beading artists, designers, sellers of items to make jewelry and more, discovered this week that a hacker, or maybe a group of hackers, has created websites using their photos, listings and every little detail about their artwork, to create fake shops. They seem to have abused Etsy's database by passing via their statistics system. Everything is cheaper on these websites, but it are fake websites. You think that you will receive patterns or findings or crystals for half the price or even less, but in fact, you are buying wind. All they're after is your hard-earned money, and your credit card details.

Sofar, 7 sites, which are craft-oriented, have been spotted. If you buy from those sites, your credit card info and paypal ID will be known (and probably stolen) by the site, you will pay for your purchase but will never get what you paid for.

These are the sites we could identify as frauds - but please note that they can multiply and be copied in just hours with a new name, so please read on:

Beware of where you buy your supplies and patterns. We artists only sell on well known platforms, not on strangely named websites. I only sell on https://caththomasdesigns.indiemade.com/ and on https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamohtaC. If you see a pattern sold elsewhere, it is a scam. So be careful: these fraudulent websites are after your $, your credit card nr. and other payment ID.

Now to finish this article on a less unpleasant note: this proves, once again, that it is better to buy directly from us, artists. We work hard for you to have fun beading, and we need your support, because if you don't buy from us, we will disappear. Don't buy from impostors.

See Katie Dean's brilliant Beading Patterns Directory for Legitimate Shops. This Directory shows the names and website of the shop of reliable designers. Have your shop added to that list if you are a designer, buy from these shops to be sure that you are buying from a Legitimate source.

And if you get patterns for free (we know that people share a lot without afterthought) but appear to like it and bead it or use it to learn, please come to our websites, and buy it to make things good again.

After coming up with the dimensional Cellini peyote shapes within the framework of my 'Waves and Flames' study, I asked you, people of Planet Bead, if I should make a tut for each or for all, and if I should create a group on Facebook where to share ideas and many answered that you wanted "all". Of course!

So I made nearly all the tutorials, individually, and also listed them as bundles: duos, a trio and a quintet for the pieces I made with the 'Flames start; and 1 tutorial for several designs made with the 'waves' start.

I haven't made tuts for everything yet, but I have created the proposed Facebook group, to share ideas with like-minded beaders, who love this stitch too: the "Cellini Peyote Freaks" group. You are welcome to join.

In this group you will find my paper about the principles of the "Waves and Flames" start, including guidelines to make a "Waves and Flames, unfinished" bangle. If you are not into Facebook, you can send me an e-mail via my website to ask for it.

To have something new to photograph for the banner of the group, I beaded up something swirly, of course: a Cellini bezel, which became a beaded bead.

The Cellini bezel is an old idea, left in a drawer, which I took out for the pink ice CZ in Anthea's Tiara - I wanted the bezel to match the Yukka Flowers. It is based on diagonal peyote.

And as explained in my previous post, this gave me the idea to make a gigantic bezel for a tape measure.

Cellini Measure Tape

My first try was not what I wanted for the tape measure and so it became a beaded bead.

Because of its resemblance with Mexican woven basketry (canastas), I called it Bola Canastas.

It provoked something inside of me. Something I cannot explain in words, but these bolas are addictive. I made more.

And more.
And more!

Rounder, longer, double etc.

It's so much fun.

Because I have to take a break to rest my arms, instead of adding this to my pile of stuff to tutify, I posted a short, pretty bad video in the group, to show the beady world how to do it. It's just a technical trick... Amazingly, many beaders got instantly hooked too. Enthusiasm is infectious! I love that. But my video was unclear, so I made a graph and a new video, which you can watch here too:

In the Cellini group, many members seem to actually never have done Cellini, so I created class rooms and made the first graphs for 2 basic techniques, so that they can get started. There is still more to do. It's a nice place, with advanced beaders and beginners, and members are helping one another. Isn't that awesome?

Interaction with other beaders is what I love most. It is what keeps me going and writing patterns and inventing new designs. "Drink me" will probably be a tutorial (perhaps the tape measure too!). Perhaps even a kit, but I will have to find a better quality tassel.

Unfortunately for my arms, all this provoked massive tendon-overload, so now that my video is up, and you beady peeps can fly, I am going to slow down the pace, and thus...

I need help

I need a little help in the group. Thankfully Elisanne M. McCutchen joined nearly immediately as Admin. I am so grateful for her help. But we need moderators. So if you have a passion for beading, are inclined to help fellow beaders, and know Cellini peyote, maybe you will like to help moderate the group? It's not complicated: approving (sometimes rejecting) new membership requests, help newbies finding this or that information and perhaps delete a post that is off-topic.

My dream team would be composed of one more person in the Americas, two from the East (Asian, Australian), one or two more from Europe / South-Africa (or anywhere in between) and a Russian and a person from the Middle East. That would really be awesome. One instead of two would already be awesome, but you've got to aim for the moon to land among the stars, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said so well.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Beading is important in my life, so I am a proud IBW ambassador. IBW means International Beading Week. It takes place the first week of August every year and is meant to bring beadworkers together, to celebrate and promote beading to a wider public. IBW started as NBW, National Beading Week in the UK, under the flag of the Beadworkers Guild, a registered charity dedicated to supporting and promoting the art of beadweaving and is open to beadworkers and bead artists everywhere.

In the IBW Facebook group managed by moi, to have some fun in between last year's and this year's events, several members participated in a year-long-bead-along, e.g. making each month one component in the color of the IBW banner, and assemble it during this Beading Week.

Karan Parker made a unique design and covered one of her friends with hugs and kisses - in the IBW FB group you will see how amazing the necklace looks on her.
Coral Johnson also had an awesome idea: she made 12 beautiful twisted triangles (a June Huber design), to make a mobile with them!
Teresa Shelton made her own design, the "Sawblade Bangle" using her astonishing folded triangles.
Erin Markowitz made a gorgeous rainbow garden. She used the explanations from the Petal to Pod document to make little leaves for nearly all the components she designed for her necklace. I think that it looks like a paradise!
Amanda Cape-Davis took a very unique take on a design by Marsha Wiest-Hines - Lilac blossoms, by using a base color and adding each month flowers to it with a color from the rainbow. Something very special and beautiful.
Beth Clark made a beautiful collection of beaded beads in delicious neon colors and sent all her beads to participate in the IBW 2018 draw, and become part of the big Beadworkers Guild collection. Knowing that my own beaded bead is there now too, maybe sandwiched by hers, puts a big smile on my face.
and yours truly made a tiara (I describe the making of this piece in this article about the inspiration behind it).

My compliments to all the participants!!! Thank you for participating!

I made tons of photos while assembling my design made with the Yukka Flowers to show you during IBW... and then discovered that I had no SD card in my camera for most of the time. Arrghh! But I will describe the making of briefly below. First I would like to explain the inspiration.

Yukka flower with cubic zirconia

The idea of a tiara made with "Yukka" flowers has been in my mind since I added an 8mm crystal chaton inside the flower for the first time... And although I had a metal diadem base from Bobby Beads since forever in my stash... I was convinced that it would be too heavy and didn't have the courage to bead so much for simply confirming that.

So for the IBW 'year-long-bead-along', I had other hair accessories in mind: hair sticks. Flowers in 9 colors to match any outfit, with a zirconia in their center... awesome sauce.

Hair stick made with a chop stick

I planned to use the remaining 3 green colors for petals. Perhaps you remember me asking in the IBW FB Group for the colorful IKEA chop sticks that were out of stock world-wide? I finally found colorful plastic chopsticks for kids, but not in all the colors. In the photo on the right you can see an attempt with January's purple flower, using green "petals" for the end cap. I don't like it. It did not turn out as I hoped it would.

Then I thought of making 2 barrettes, but the weight factor indeed became an issue, and the flowers slipped on the barrette in every direction. I struggled with their unwillingness to stand tall, and the flowers were too close to each other, which looked unattractive. It didn't do the lovely swirls justice, and ruined the rainbow effect. That actually didn't encourage me to make a tiara, and I felt a bit disheartened.

But in May, a real-life fairy tail happened: a beautiful girl from California became a British royal princess, and while wondering what to do with my flowers, my FB news feed got flooded with photos of tiaras. That pulled the trigger: I had to make that tiara I imagined with my swirly flowers and find a way to have them stand tall... As you may know, I believe in signs from the universe! And I think that I did well, because

It worked!

Here is Anthea's Tiara

Anthea's Tiara - front view

Upon suggestion of a Facebook friend, I kept the yellow flower with its rebellious swirl. I like that it shows that the flowers can be made with the swirl in the opposite direction. Somehow it balances the whole. May's malachite, June's olive and July's peridot can be found in the little bees, and the beads used to cover the diadem and to make the little petals (on the sides, and as bee wings) are July's too.

Anthea's Tiara - back view. I love zirconias because the light shines through

It sits really beautifully on top of the head, as you can see in the photo below.

Why Anthea's?

In Greek the name Anthea means: Flower; Lady of flowers. In Greek mythology, it is one of the names borne by goddess Hera, who received a garden from Gaia when she accepted to become Zeus's spouse. The guardians of this garden were the Hesperides, the "Nymphs of the West" (where the sun goes down or Evening Nymphs), believed to be the grand-daughters of the Evening star. Their number is unclear. The Evening star is nothing less but Venus in our constellation, and Venus is the goddess of love.

Hesperoyucca whipplei
or Western Yucca

Because I named my 'Yukka' flowers after the Western yucca flower (hesperoyucca whipplei) just before opening, I think that they represent the Hesperides well;

Because my muse obliged me to use the remaining, but larger pink ice CZ left in my stash by hiding my 8mm, suddenly Venus as the Evening star was beautifully represented too;

And because a garden needs bees, I made two earrings representing little bees;

The whole forms the beautiful rainbow.

It feels amazing to wear.

Do you think that Hera would wear it?

Making of the tiara:

I used only beads, thread, zirconia and a metal diadem base. No glue and no fabric.

8mm zirconia in flower

I covered the diadem with beads in 3-drop peyote (lesson learned from the barrettes). Beading on the inside of the curve inside the diadem was challenging - I had to bend my needle and be really careful to not break a bead. The flowers stand up so well that it surprised me. Thread tension was key. I feared that the whole would flip over, but even without the small bezels between them, the flowers stand perfectly tall.

bezelled 8mm zirconias

Initially, I hoped that, standing straight, the flowers would hold the 8mm zirconias well inside their 3 points (as you can see in the photo right). I abandoned that idea after loosing the pink and aqua stones, found the aqua back and bezelled them all (photo left). They now sit between the flowers on the tiara, which looks much better than without them, actually...

The large, pink ice CZ is captured inside a flat Cellini peyote bezel. Of course this made the Tiara heavier... I really wondered if it would remain on my head or tip over.

I put everything on the diadem with the combs "to the bottom" as if it was to be put on the head like a crown, but this resulted in combs pointing towards my front. Although this probably is technically incorrect, it appeared to be the best thing I could have done: the weight of the beadwork leaning to the back somewhat pushes the combs to the front, and it remains in place. It sits perfectly well on my head. If I had mounted the piece with the combs pointing backwards, the combs would slip out of my hair and the tiara would certainly fall.

Because so many happy coincidences made this piece come to life, and better then I had hoped for, it makes me believe that something out there wanted this to come to fruition. I call this "beading with the Universe". I love it when that happens.

About Me

I am Dutch and live in Switzerland since 1980.I am happily married and my favorite activity is off-loom beadweaving, bead embroidery and other techniques, to make jewelry and sometimes objects. Beading is a wonderful art.